DOS: Worldwide Visa Operations Recovering Faster Than
Expected
On October 21, 2022, the Department of State (DOS) announced
that worldwide visa operations are recovering faster than expected
from COVID-19-pandemic-related effects. As a result, the agency has
doubled hiring of U.S. Foreign Service personnel and said it
expects to reach pre-pandemic processing levels this year.
The COVID-19 pandemic "forced profound reductions in
DOS's visa processing capacity" in two main ways, the
agency explained. First, restrictions on travel to the United
States, and local restrictions on public places like overseas
consular waiting rooms, curbed the ability to see visa applicants.
Second, as revenue from the application fees that fund visa
processing operations was cut nearly in half, more than 300
overseas consular officer positions went unfilled in 2020 and 2021,
further reducing the number of visa applications that could be
processed.
